Ben Gringeri's part

Now that the video is done, I'm going to go through the different parts and give you a little inside scoop on them. We didn't have much of an intro, and that was just fine with me. You know what video you're watching, so let's get on with it. That's how we felt. The intro turned out just how Matt and I had imagined it, short and to the point. Throw a little creepy in the mix, and that about sums it up. I didn't feel like drawing this time, and so we just kept it really simple. Let's go on to Ben's part...

So Ben is one of the new members of Bolts of Thunder. When I say new member, I mean that he was not in any of our other videos. Ben's a ripper, he's got a bag of tricks more diverse, unique, and powerful than just about anyone I know, and he's a Thunder Bolt from head to toe. So I'm going to tell you about his part now...

I think Ben slammed more and harder than anyone else in the video. AJ took some good ones too, but I think Ben took more. He was always bleeding out of his elbows and his hands and heels were perpetually bruised. But one really cool thing about Ben is that he still landed pretty much every trick he slammed on. Like that varial flip down the grass gap at the end of his part, we went there 3 times before he landed it because he kept slamming every time. There's one trick that he didn't land, the smith grind on that rail that he slammed on in his part, but I'm sure he'll go back and get it again some time. A lot of his other tricks, like that huge ollie at first and pop shuvit tail grab at the end (photos above) required slamming pretty hard before he rolled away.

Something funny about Ben. I think it's funny at least. Maybe you don't. But all the people on Bolts of Thunder, you could tell they were skaters when you looked at them. The clothes they wore, the tricks they did, all that, it said that they were skaters. But Ben, his disposition doesn't yell "skater" at you when you see him. He could be involved in anything and everything but skating, which he basically is. So when you see him hit a home run in baseball, climb huge cliffs and mountains, or kick a goal in socker, it's a little surprising to see him step on his board and jump down some huge gap. But what am I talking about, I've never actually seen Ben play other sports, I've just heard about it... Anyway, he's an undercover ripper, kind of like Dan.

Ok, so Ben's song was Matt's idea. I think he's had this song in mind for a video for some time now. A fast song fit really good with Ben's skating, so it was a good fit. Editing the part was pretty easy because a lot of Ben's skating go perfectly with the beats and singing in the song. This is the third video in a row that we've used Blonde Redhead songs. They just seem to fit.

What else do you want to know?...I can't think of much else... Oh yeah, Ben's abs. Yes, those are real, and they are often on display during the hotter summer months. That was the first time I had seen them when we filmed them that day from his part, and I did not know abs realistically looked like that on living human beings. But they do, and you wouldn't want to mess with them. They look like they came from a cake mold of abs that someone made and glued on to Ben's body. Maybe that's all they are, little cake balls?... Could be.

I guess that's all I have to say right now for Ben's part. I will end by saying that I love watching it. Ben worked really hard to film all those tricks. My favorite tricks from his part are the kickflip boardslide and varial flip lipslide down that rail. He does those so good, and nobody else goes near those tricks. Also, that pop shuvit tail grab at the end was massive, and it was a relief to see him ride away clean from it. And that 5-0 on the kinked out rail, that thing is nuts, and I wouldn't touch a 5-0 on that rail with a 10 foot pole. But pretty much everything in his part is crazy, and Ben had to work to get. So you should take another look at Ben's part because it's worth watching over and over.